Senator Joe "Psst-wanna-buy-a-moral-compass?" Lieberman. Except he misplaced his between August and December last year.
Joe Lieberman, who turned so far away from his previously stated positions during the Presidential campaign last year that, when it was over and he returned to the Senate, he just kept on spinning and so he now has exactly the same positions as when he left for the campaign.
And remember when Lieberman's folks played up the speech he was going to deliver in the Senate which would clearly put a moral stake in the ground vis-�-vis Bill Clinton? Lieberman chickened out like a Tyson's oven-stuffer and said, in effect, the President had been a very, very naughty boy and maybe it would be better if he kept his hands off the help.
Now, Lieberman is one of the 2,735 Members of the House and Senate who will be investigating the Enron calamity and, because he is a Democrat from the Northeast, the New York-based talk-show bookers love him.
A sharp-eyed Mullster on Capitol Hill sent me an e-mail pointing out a copyrighted Houston Chronicle piece written by Michael Hedges regarding Lieberman's appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" last Sunday.
Here's what Joe "Morality-knows-no-partisanship" Lieberman said of a Ken Lay-George W. Bush connection: "We know that Mr. Lay and other executives of Enron were right in the middle of the formulation of the Bush administration energy policy. We don't know enough to know whether any of that influence in any way stopped the administration or agencies of our federal government from protecting average shareholders who lost life savings when Enron collapsed, and that's the question we're going to ask."
Contacts between Enron and the Administration, BAD.
Then Joe "Friends-get-no-get-out-of-jail-free-card-from-me" Lieberman was asked about a call from FORMER Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin to the CURRENT Treasury Department.
First you have to understand this: Enron owes Citigroup about $800 MILLION. That's 80 percent of the way to a BILLION.
Bob Rubin is a member of the board of directors of Citigroup. Not just a member of the board, but a member of the executive committee of the board. Not just a member of the executive committee, but the CHAIRMAN of the executive committee of the board of directors of a major financial institution which is holding $800 million of Enron paper; paper which has exactly the same current value as that napkin under your coffee mug.
So, Rubin calls Treasury and, again according to the Hedges Houston Chronicle piece "proposed to the Treasury Department that it help forestall Enron's devastating bond-rating reduction." In effect attempting to get a federal bail-out for Citigroup.
And what did Joe "It's-either-right-or-it's-wrong" Lieberman say about that unbelievably self-serving phone call?
"In the best of worlds, Bob Rubin wouldn't have made that call, but it doesn't sound like he did anything improper."
Calls from a banker with a financial interest in Enron, GOOD.
Here's a great tip for political junkies. Mark Halperin of ABC News' more-or-less daily "political note" to
ABC News is now available to the public. Go to the Secret Decoder Ring page for the link, a pic of me in Crystal Lake, and the usual stuff:
At least one of the 813 Committees which are investigating Enron should subpoena Mr. Rubin and find out:
- What discussions did Mr. Rubin have with Mr. Lay and when did he have them?
- As a result of those discussions did Mr. Rubin know or have reason to suspect Enron was going south?
- Does/did Citigroup or any of its executives own Enron stock?
- Did it/they take any action with regard to that stock based upon Mr. Rubin's inside information?
- Did Citigroup, using Mr. Rubin's inside information issue any warnings to its other customers about Enron? If so, which customers and what action did THEY take?
In short: What did Citigroup executives know about Enron's finances and when did they know it?
But to Joe "I-know-an-honest-Democrat-when-I-see-one" Lieberman "it doesn't sound like he did anything improper."
A former senior member of the Clinton Administration do anything improper? Nah.
That speech that Tom Daschle bombed with a couple of weeks ago. Remember that? Guess who introduced him: Bob Rubin.
Rubin should have asked Daschle to return the favor and do an introduction of his own: Introduce a bill to make a one-time grant of your tax dollars to Citigroup as a reward for its stupid decision to lend Enron eight-hundred-mill.
� 
